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Garrison - Fermanagh - Main St

circa 1910

Garrison (An Garastún in Irish) is a small village in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, 5 miles south of Belleek, at the eastern end of Lough Melvin. The Roogagh River runs through the village. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 357 people. It is within the Fermanagh District Council area.

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Garrison

Garrison (An Garastún in Irish) is a small village in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, 5 miles south of Belleek, at the eastern end of Lough Melvin. The Roogagh River runs through the village. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 357 people. It is within the Fermanagh District Council area.

Visitors to Garrison can enjoy a wide range of activities including golfing, fishing, hill-walking, water sports, horse-riding, cycling, camping and caving. The Lough Melvin Holiday Centre caters for large groups and there is a plethera of local guesthouses and chalets to let. Two local pubs - The Melvin Bar and The Riverside Bar - provide music and craic and the local restaurant - The Bilberry - is well established and well renowned in the North-West region.

According to the UK Met Office, the highest temperature ever recorded in Northern Ireland is 30.8 °C at Knockarevan, Garrison on 30 June 1976.

Lough Melvin in Ireland is home to the Gillaroo or 'salmo stomachius' - a species of trout which eats primarily snails. Gillaroo is derived from the Gaeilge for 'red fellow' (Gaeilge: Giolla Rua). This is due to the fish's distinctive colouring. It has a bright buttery golden colour on its flanks with bight crimson and vermillion spots. The gillaroo is characterised by deep red spots and a 'gizzard', which is used to aid the digestion of hard food items such as water snails. Experiments carried out by Queens University, Belfast established that the Lough Melvin gillaroo species cannot be found anywhere else in the world. They feed almost exclusively on bottom living animals (snails, sedge fly larva and freshwater shrimp) with the exception of late summer when they come to the surface to feed and may be caught on the dry fly. Other lakes reputed to contain the gillaroo are Lough Neagh, Lough Conn, Lough Mask and Lough Corrib. However, the unique gene found in the Lough Melvin trout has not been found in some 200 trout populations in Ireland or Britain.

The sonaghan trout (Salmo nigripinnis) is another species unique to Lough Melvin. It can have a light brown or silvery hue with large, distinctive black spots. There are sometimes small, inconspicuous red spots located along its posterior region. Its fins are dark brown or black with elongated pectorals. Sonaghan are found in areas of open, deep water, where they feed on mid-water planktonic organisms.

Legend

Legend has it that St Brigid was offered chicken to eat on a Friday as she walked through Garrison and was so enraged she threw the entire bird into the river where it changed into a fish, hence the 'gizzard'.

History

Garrison is named from a barracks erected by William III who halted here after the Battle of Aughrim.

Garrison was a thriving town before The Troubles when it was cut off from the Republic of Ireland after the roads were blown up by the British Security Forces in an attempt to stop the transportation of explosives into Northern Ireland. When cross-border business halted, the town suffered from lack of trade and it is only since the roads reopened in 1994 that Garrison has found its feet again.

The Melvin Hotel, previously owned by the McGovern family, was blown up, during the middle of a Catholic wedding reception, byrepublicans reportedly as retaliation for allowing members of the security forces to stay on the premises. In reality, it was a dry run for the bomb makers and planters to detonate a bomb in an area that was not easily accessible to the local police who were in barracks in Belleek, five miles away.

Charlie Chaplin fished Lough Melvin and played football in the local GAA club while staying in the locality